So after the fitting (and 55 f'in dollars later), we headed down to Nordstroms Rack to get cheap, but well-fitted bras. Basically, 3 for the price of that first one. My jugs are happy riding where they are, but did get in the way a little.

 

Not all of that is me.. just 3/4 of it.

 

oh the humiliation...!

My photo/design entry into a local dog costume contest. Sagan was a good sport about it, but it took a lot of cookie incentive.

You, with your switching sides and your wildfire lies and your humiliation,

You, have pointed out my flaws again, as if I don't already see them,

I walk with my head down trying to block you out 'coz I'll never impress you,

I just wanna feel okay again.

 

I'll bet you got pushed around, somebody made you cold,

But the cycle ends right now 'coz you can't lead me down that road.

But you don't know what you don't know.

 

Someday, I'll be living in a big old city,

And all you're ever gonna be is mean.

Someday, I'll be big enough so you can't hit me,

And all you're ever gonna be is mean.

Why you gotta be so mean?

"Liar" - The Henry Rollins Band

 

you think you're going to live your life alone

in darkness and seclusion... yeah, I know

you've been out there and tried to mix with those animals

and it just left you full of humiliated confusion

so you stagger back home and wait for nothing

but the solitary refinement of your room spits you back onto the streets

and now you're desperate and in need of human contact

and then you meet me and yur whole world changes

because everything I say is everything you've ever wanted to hear

so you drop all you defenses, and you drop all your fears and you trust me

completely, I'm perfect in every way

'cause I make you feel so strong and so powerfull inside

you feel so lucky

but your ego obscures reality that you never bothered to

wonder why things are going so well

you want to know why?

 

'cause I'm a liar, yeah, I'm a liar

I'll tear (rip) your mind up, I'll burn your soul

I'll turn you into me, I'll turn you into me

'cause I'm a liar, a liar, a liar, a liar...

 

I'll hide behind a smile and understanding eyes

and I'll tell you things that you already know so you can say:

I really identify with you, so much

and all the time that you're needing me is just the time

that I'm bleeding you, don't you get it yet?

I'll come to you like an affliction then I'll leave you like an addiction

you'll never forget me... wou wanna know why?

 

I don't know why I feel the need to lie and cause you so much pain

maybe it's something inside, maybe it's something I can't explain

'cause all I do is mess you up and lie to you

I'm a liar, ooh, I'm a liar

but if you'll give me another chance I swear I'll never lie to you again

'cause now I see the destructive power of a lie,

they're stronger than truth

I ca't believe I ever hurt you, I swear I will never lie to you again

please, just give me more chance, I'll never lie to you again, no,

I swear, I will never tell a lie, I will neer tell a lie, no, no

Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha! Sucker! Sucker! Sucker!

 

I am a liar, yeah, I am a liar, yeah, I am a liar

I lie you, I feel good, I am a liar, yeah

I lie ooh, I lie, yeah, I lie

I'm a liar, I lie, I like it, I feel good, I like it, and again

I like it again and I'll keep lying, I'll promise

 

My Dad somehow came by a set of 12 handbells... he had 4 kids... and there were 2 more up the road - somehow he managed to form us into a Von-Trapp style travelling/performing troupe and we were dragged to village halls and old people's homes across the Kent/Sussex border. We played 'When the saints go marching in', 'Mud mud glorious mud' and 'The Grandfather's clock' - amongst others, and millions of carols. I had bells 11 and 12 so only got the occasional high notes. You can see by our faces how much we enjoyed this. Things finally came to an end when bells 3 and 4 got bells 9 and 10 pregnant and we were no longer socially acceptable to be presented to decent folk. :D

 

NB: Bells 1 and 2 is out of shot.

There are some people in life that you can't ignore. Every day with them it is a new humiliation. They feed you, so they think it's okay. But they don't know your plan.

Visit this location at Humiliation in Paradise in Second Life

Throwback Thursday…image from 1/5/13

Tipu Sultan ( Urdu:ٹیپو سلطان, Kannada : ಟಿಪ್ಪು ಸುಲ್ತಾನ್ ) (20 November 1750 – 4 May 1799), (Sultan Fateh Ali Khan Shahab) also known as the Tiger of Mysore, and Tipu Sahib, was a ruler of the Kingdom of Mysore. He was the eldest son of Sultan Hyder Ali of Mysore. Tipu introduced a number of administrative innovations during his rule, including his coinage, a new Mauludi lunisolar calendar, and a new land revenue system which initiated the growth of Mysore silk industry. Tipu expanded the iron-cased Mysorean rockets and wrote the military manual Fathul Mujahidin, considered a pioneer in the use of rocket artillery. He deployed the rockets against advances of British forces and their allies in their 1792 and 1799 Siege of Srirangapatna.

 

Tipu engaged in expansionist attacks against his neighbours. He remained an implacable enemy of the British East India Company, bringing them into renewed conflict with his attack on British-allied Travancore in 1789. In the Third Anglo-Mysore War, Tipu was forced into the humiliating Treaty of Seringapatam, losing a number of previously conquered territories, including Malabar and Mangalore. He sent emissaries to foreign states, including the Ottoman Turkey, Afghanistan, and France, in an attempt to rally opposition to the British. In the Fourth Anglo-Mysore War, the forces of the British East India Company, supported by the Marathas and the Nizam of Hyderabad, defeated Tipu and he was killed on 4 May 1799 while defending his fort of Srirangapatna. Tipu Sultan's image in India is complicated where he is regarded both as a secular ruler who fought against British colonialism as well as an anti-Hindu tyrant.

 

EARLY YEARS OF TIPU SULTAN

CHILDHOOD

Tipu Sultan was born on 20 November 1750 (Friday, 20th Dhu al-Hijjah, 1163 AH) at Devanahalli, in present-day Bengaluru Rural district, about 33 km north of Bengaluru city. He was named "Tipu Sultan" after the saint Tipu Mastan Aulia of Arcot. Tipu was also called "Fath Ali" after his grandfather Fatah Muhammad. Tipu was born at Devanhalli, the son of Haidar Ali. Himself illiterate, Haidar was very particular in giving his eldest son a prince's education and a very early exposure to military and political affairs. From the age of 17 Tipu was given independent charge of important diplomatic and military missions. He was his father's right arm in the wars from which Haidar emerged as the most powerful ruler of southern India.

 

Tipu's father, Hyder Ali, was a military officer in service to the Kingdom of Mysore; he rapidly rose in power, and became the de facto ruler of Mysore in 1761.

 

SECOND ANGLO-MYSORE WAR

In 1779, the British captured the French-controlled port of Mahé, which Tipu had placed under his protection, providing some troops for its defence. In response, Hyder launched an invasion of the Carnatic, with the aim of driving the British out of Madras.[13] During this campaign in September 1780, Tipu Sultan was dispatched by Hyder Ali with 10,000 men and 18 guns to intercept Colonel Baillie who was on his way to join Sir Hector Munro. In the Battle of Pollilur, Tipu decisively defeated Baillie. Out of 360 Europeans, about 200 were captured alive, and the sepoys, who were about 3800 men, suffered very high casualties. Munro was moving south with a separate force to join Baillie, but on hearing the news of the defeat he was forced to retreat to Madras, abandoning his artillery in a water tank at Kanchipuram.

 

Tipu Sultan defeated Colonel Braithwaite at Annagudi near Tanjore on 18 February 1782. Braithwaite's forces, consisting of 100 Europeans, 300 cavalry, 1400 sepoys and 10 field pieces, was the standard size of the colonial armies. Tipu Sultan seized all the guns and took the entire detachment prisoner. In December 1781 Tipu Sultan successfully seized Chittur from the British. Tipu Sultan had thus gained sufficient military experience by the time Hyder Ali died on Friday, 6 December 1782 – some historians put it at 2 or 3 days later or before, (Hijri date being 1 Muharram, 1197 as per some records in Persian – there may be a difference of 1 to 3 days due to the Lunar Calendar). Tipu Sultan realised that the British were a new kind of threat in India. He became the ruler of Mysore on Sunday, 22 December 1782 (The inscriptions in some of Tipu's regalia showing it as 20 Muharram, 1197 Hijri – Sunday), in a simple coronation ceremony. He then worked to check the advances of the British by making alliances with the Marathas and the Mughals.

 

The Second Mysore War came to an end with the 1784 Treaty of Mangalore. It was the last occasion when an Indian king dictated terms to the British, and the treaty is a prestigious document in the history of India.

 

RULER OF THE MYSORE STATE

Muhammad Falak Ali taught Tipu how to fight. While leading a predominantly Hindu country, Tipu remained strong in his Muslim faith, going daily to say his prayers and paying special attention to mosques in the area.

 

During his rule, he completed the project of Lal Bagh started by his father Hyder Ali, and built roads, public buildings, and ports in his kingdom. His dominion extended throughout North Bangalore including the Nandi Hills and Chickballapur. His trade extended to countries such as Sri Lanka, Oman, Durrani Afghanistan, France, Ottoman Turkey and Iran. Under his leadership, the Mysore army proved to be a school of military science to Indian princes. The serious blows that Tipu Sultan inflicted on the British in the First and Second Mysore Wars affected their reputation as an invincible power.

 

Dr APJ Abdul Kalam, the former President of India, in his Tipu Sultan Shaheed Memorial Lecture in Bangalore (30 November 1991), called Tipu Sultan the innovator of the world's first war rocket. Two of these rockets, captured by the British at Srirangapatna, are displayed in the Royal Artillery Museum in London. According to historian Dr Dulari Qureshi Tipu Sultan was a fierce warrior king and was so quick in his movement that it seemed to the enemy that he was fighting on many fronts at the same time. Tipu managed to subdue all the petty kingdoms in the south. He defeated the Nizams and was also one of the few Indian rulers to have defeated British armies. He is said to have started a new coinage, calendar, and a new system of weights and measures mainly based on the methods introduced by French technicians. He was well versed in Kannada, Urdu, Persian, Arabic, English and French. Tipu was supposed to become a Sufi, but his father Hyder Ali insisted he become a capable soldier and leader.

 

FOREIGN RELATIONS

Both Hyder Ali ismaael and Tipu Sultan were independent rulers of Mysore, but claimed some degree of loyalty to the Mughal Emperor Shah Alam II. Both of them are known to have maintained correspondence with the Mughal emperor. Unlike the Nawab of Carnatic, neither owed any allegiance to the Nizam of Hyderabad and often instead chose direct contact and relations with the Mughal emperor.

 

In the year 1787, Tipu Sultan sent an embassy to the Ottoman capital Istanbul, to the Ottoman Sultan Abdul Hamid I requesting urgent assistance against the British East India Company and had proposed an offensive and defensive consortium. Tipu Sultan requested the Ottoman Sultan to send him troops and military experts. Furthermore, Tipu Sultan also requested permission from the Ottomans to contribute to the maintenance of the Islamic shrines in Mecca, Medina, Najaf and Karbala. However, the Ottomans were themselves at crisis and still recuperating from the devastating Austro-Ottoman War and a new conflict with the Russian Empire had begun, for which Ottoman Turkey needed British alliance to keep off the Russians, hence it could not risk being hostile to the British in the Indian theatre. Due to the Ottoman-inability to organise a fleet in the Indian Ocean, Tipu Sultan's ambassadors returned home only with gifts from their Ottoman allies, this event caused his defeat and loss of much territory by the year 1792. Nevertheless, Tipu Sultan's correspondence with the Ottoman Turkish Empire and particularly it's new Sultan Selim III continued till his final battle in the year 1799.

 

Tipu sought support from the French, who had been his traditional allies, aimed at driving his main rivals, the British East India Company, out of the subcontinent. But back in France, the French revolution had broken out, the ruling Bourbon family was executed and the country was in chaos, hence the French did not support him. Napoleon, while still not the Emperor of France, sought an alliance with Tipu Sultan. Napoleon came as far as conquering Egypt in an attempt to link with Tipu Sultan against the British, their common enemy. In February 1798, Napoleon wrote a letter to Tipu Sultan appreciating his efforts of resisting the British annexation and plans, but this letter never reached Tipu and was seized by a British spy in Muscat. The idea of a possible Tipu-Napoleon alliance alarmed the British Governor General Sir Richard Wellesley (also known as Lord Wellesley) so much that he immediately started large scale preparations for a final battle against Tipu Sultan.

 

Both Tipu Sultan and Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte were defeated by the same person. In the Final siege and fall of Srirangapatna in 1799, General Arthur Wellesley led the British army into the City after the fall of Tipu Sultan. Arthur was the younger brother of Richard Wellesley, and was one of the British Generals in the Fourth Mysore War. Several years later in Europe, the same Arthur Wellesley, now the Duke of Wellington, led the armies of the Seventh Coalition and defeated the Imperial French army led by Napoleon Bonaparte in the Battle of Waterloo in 1815.

 

Like his father before him, Tipu Sultan maintained many embassies and made several contacts with Mohammad Ali Khan, ruler of the Zand Dynasty in Persia. Tipu Sultan also maintained correspondence with Hamad bin Said, the ruler of the Sultanate of Oman.

 

Regional interests and clever British diplomacy left Tipu with more enemies and betrayers, but no allies when he needed them the most – the final showdown with the British in the Fourth Mysore War.

 

WAR AGAINST THE MARATHA CONFEDERACY

The Maratha Empire, under its new Peshwa Madhavrao I, regained most of Indian subcontinent, twice defeating Tipu's father, who was forced to accept Maratha Empire as the supreme power in 1764 and then in 1767. In 1767 Maratha Peshwa Madhavrao defeated both Hyder Ali and Tipu Sultan and entered Srirangapatna, the capital of Mysore. Hyder Ali accepted the authority of Madhavrao who gave him the title of Nawab of Mysore. However Tipu Sultan wanted to escape from the treaty of Marathas and therefore tried to take some Maratha forts in southern India. This brought Tipu in direct conflict with the Marathas, who sent an army towards Mysore under leadership of General Nana Phadnavis. The Marathas took many forts of Tipu Sultan in the Mysore region Badami, Kittur, and Gajendragad in June 1786. By the victory in this war, the border of the Maratha territory was extended to the Tungabhadra river. This forced Tipu to open negotiations with the Maratha leadership. He sent two of his agents to the Maratha capital of Pune. The deal that was finalised resulted in the Marathas recovering their territories which had been invaded by Mysore. Furthermore, the Nizam of Hyderabad received Adoni and Mysore was obligated to pay 4.8 million rupees as a war cost to the Marathas, and an annual tribute of 1.2 million rupees; in return the Marathas recognised the rule of Tipu in the Mysore region.

 

The Malabar Invasion of Sultanate of Mysore (1766–1790)

In 1766, when Tipu Sultan was just 15 years old, he got the chance to apply his military training in battle for the first time, when he accompanied his father on an invasion of Malabar. After the incident- Siege of Tellicherry in Thalassery in North Malabar, Hyder Ali started losing his territories in Malabar. Tipu came from Mysore to reinstate the authority over Malabar. After the Battle of the Nedumkotta (1789), due to the monsoon flood, the stiff resistance of the Travancore forces and news about the attack of British in Srirangapatnam he went back.

 

THIRD ANGLO-MYSORE-WAR

In 1789, Tipu Sultan disputed the acquisition by Dharma Raja of Travancore of two Dutch-held fortresses in Cochin. In December 1789 he massed troops at Coimbatore, and on 28 December made an attack on the lines of Travancore, knowing that Travancore was (according to the Treaty of Mangalore) an ally of the British East India Company. On account of the staunch resistance by the Travancore army, Tipu was unable to break through the Tranvancore lines and the Maharajah of Travancore appealed to the East India Company for help. In response, Lord Cornwallis mobilised company and British military forces, and formed alliances with the Marathas and the Nizam of Hyderabad to oppose Tipu. In 1790 the company forces advanced, taking control of much of the Coimbatore district. Tipu counterattacked, regaining much of the territory, although the British continued to hold Coimbatore itself. He then descended into the Carnatic, eventually reaching Pondicherry, where he attempted without success to draw the French into the conflict.In 1791 his opponents advanced on all fronts, with the main British force under Cornwallis taking Bangalore and threatening Srirangapatna. Tipu harassed the British supply and communication and embarked on a "scorched earth" policy of denying local resources to the invaders. In this last effort he was successful, as the lack of provisions forced Cornwallis to withdraw to Bangalore rather than attempt a siege of Srirangapatna. Following the withdrawal, Tipu sent forces to Coimbatore, which they retook after a lengthy siege.

 

The 1792 campaign was a failure for Tipu. The allied army was well-supplied, and Tipu was unable to prevent the junction of forces from Bangalore and Bombay before Srirangapatna. After about two weeks of siege, Tipu opened negotiations for terms of surrender. In the ensuing treaty, he was forced to cede half his territories to the allies, and deliver two of his sons as hostages until he paid in full three crores and thirty lakhs rupees fixed as war indemnity to the British for the campaign against him. He paid the amount in two instalments and got back his sons from Madras.

 

NAPOLEON´S ATTEMPT AT A JUNCTION

In 1794, with the support of French Republican officers, Tipu helped found the Jacobin Club of Mysore for 'framing laws comfortable with the laws of the Republic' He planted a Liberty Tree and declared himself Citizen Tipoo.

 

One of the motivations of Napoleon's Invasion of Egypt was to establish a junction with India against the British. Bonaparte wished to establish a French presence in the Middle East, with the ultimate dream of linking with Tippoo Sahib. Napoleon assured to the French Directory that "as soon as he had conquered Egypt, he will establish relations with the Indian princes and, together with them, attack the English in their possessions." According to a 13 February 1798 report by Talleyrand: "Having occupied and fortified Egypt, we shall send a force of 15,000 men from Suez to India, to join the forces of Tipu-Sahib and drive away the English." Napoleon was unsuccessful in this strategy, losing the Siege of Acre in 1799, and at the Battle of Abukir in 1801.

 

“Although I never supposed that he (Napoleon) possessed, allowing for some difference of education, the liberality of conduct and political views which were sometimes exhibited by old Hyder Ali, yet I did think he might have shown the same resolved and dogged spirit of resolution which induced Tipu Sahib to die manfully upon the breach of his capital city with his sabre clenched in his hand.”

— Sir Walter Scott, commenting on the abdication of Napoleon Bonaparte in 1814

 

DEATH

FOURTH ANGLO-MYSORE WAR

After Horatio Nelson had defeated François-Paul Brueys D'Aigalliers at the Battle of the Nile in Egypt in 1798, three armies, one from Bombay, and two British (one of which included Arthur Wellesley), marched into Mysore in 1799 and besieged the capital Srirangapatna in the Fourth Mysore War.

 

There were over 26,000 soldiers of the British East India Company comprising about 4000 Europeans and the rest Indians. A column was supplied by the Nizam of Hyderabad consisting of ten battalions and over 16,000 cavalry, and many soldiers were sent by the Marathas. Thus the soldiers in the British force numbered over 50,000 soldiers whereas Tipu Sultan had only about 30,000 soldiers. The British broke through the city walls, French Military advisers advised Tipu Sultan to escape from secret passages and live to fight another day but to their astonishment Tipu replied "One day of life as a Tiger is far better than thousand years of living as a Sheep". Tipu Sultan died defending his capital on 4 May. When the fallen Tipu was identified, Wellesley felt his pulse and confirmed that he was dead. Next to him, underneath his palankeen, was one of his most confidential servants, Rajah Cawn. Rajah was able to identify Tipu for the soldiers. Tipu Sultan was killed at the Hoally (Diddy) Gateway, which was located 270 m from the N.E. Angle of the Srirangapatna Fort. Tipu was buried the next afternoon, at the Gumaz, next to the grave of his father. In the midst of his burial, a great storm struck, with massive winds and rains. As Lieutenant Richard Bayly of the British 12th regiment wrote,

I have experienced hurricanes, typhoons, and gales of wind at sea, but never in the whole course of my existence had I seen anything comparable to this desolating visitation.Immediately after the death of Tipu Sultan many members of the British East India Company believed that Umdat Ul-Umra, the Nawab of Carnatic, secretly provided assistance to Tipu Sultan during the war and immediately sought his deposition after the year 1799.

 

LEADERSHIP, POLICY AND INNOVATIONS

Tipu introduced a new calendar, new coinage, and seven new government departments, during his reign, and made military innovations in the use of rocketry.

 

MYSOREAN ROCKETS

Tipu Sultan's father had expanded on Mysore's use of rocketry, making critical innovations in the rockets themselves and the military logistics of their use. He deployed as many as 1,200 specialised troops in his army to operate rocket launchers. These men were skilled in operating the weapons and were trained to launch their rockets at an angle calculated from the diameter of the cylinder and the distance to the target. The rockets had blades mounted on them, and could wreak significant damage when fired en masse against a large army. Tipu greatly expanded the use of rockets after Hyder's death, deploying as many as 5,000 rocketeers at a time. The rockets deployed by Tipu during the Battle of Pollilur were much more advanced than those the British East India Company had previously seen, chiefly because of the use of iron tubes for holding the propellant; this enabled higher thrust and longer range for the missiles (up to 2 km range).

 

British accounts describe the use of the rockets during the third and fourth wars. During the climactic battle at Srirangapatna in 1799, British shells struck a magazine containing rockets, causing it to explode and send a towering cloud of black smoke with cascades of exploding white light rising up from the battlements. After Tipu's defeat in the fourth war the British captured a number of the Mysorean rockets. These became influential in British rocket development, inspiring the Congreve rocket, which was soon put into use in the Napoleonic Wars.

 

RELIGIOUS POLICY

As a Muslim ruler in a largely Hindu domain, Tipu Sultan faced problems in establishing the legitimacy of his rule, and in reconciling his desire to be seen as a devout Islamic ruler with the need to be pragmatic to avoid antagonising the majority of his subjects. His religious legacy has become a source of considerable controversy in the subcontinent. Some groups proclaim him a great warrior for the faith or Ghazi, while others revile him as a bigot who massacred Hindus.

 

In 1780, he declared himself to be the Badshah or Emperor of Mysore, and struck coinage in his own name without reference to the reigning Mughal Emperor Shah Alam II. H. D. Sharma writes that, in his correspondence with other Islamic rulers such as Zaman Shah of the Afghan Durrani Empire, Tipu Sultan used this title and declared that he intended to establish an Islamic empire in the entire country, along the lines of the Mughal Empire, which was at its decline during the period in question. He even invited Zaman Shah to invade India to help achieve this mission. His alliance with the French was supposedly aimed at achieving this goal by driving his main rivals, the British, out of the subcontinent. During the early period of Tipu Sultan's reign in particular, he appears to have been as strict as his father against any non-Muslim accused of collaboration with the British East India Company or the Maratha.

 

ATTITUDE TOWARDS HINDUS

CNVERSIONS OF HINDUS OUTSIDE MYSORE TO ISLAM

KODAGU (COORG)

The battles between Kodavas and Tippu Sultan is one of the most bitter rivalries in South India. There were repeated attempts to capture Kodagu by the sultan and his father Hyder Ali before him. The primary reason for sultan's interest in Kodagu because annexing Kodagu would provide access to Mangalore port. The Kodavas knew their lands and mountains very well which made them excellent at guerrilla warfare. Kodavas were outnumbered 3 to 1 in most of Tippu's attempts to annex Kodagu but they managed to beat back Tippu most of the times by drawing his army towards hilly regions of their land. On few occasions Tippu's army managed to reach Madikeri(Capital of Kodagu) but the Kodavas always ambushed the contingent left behind by Tippu. Kodavas refusal to bow to the sultan was primarily because throughout their history they enjoyed independence, though there were Rajahs ruling over them, governance of the land mainly rested with Kodavas. After capturing Kodagu on another occasion, Tippu proclaimed, "If you ever dare to ambush my men again, I will honor everyone of you with Islam", undeterred, the resilient Kodavas ambushed his men yet again and drove them back to Mysore. By now Tippu realized conventional warfare would never yield him Kodagu. He devised a plan to annex Kodagu by offering his friendship. His offer of friendship was welcomed by Kodavas as the battles with the Sultan over the years had cost them dearly. When Kodavas welcomed Sultan to their land in the name of friendship, the Sultan and his men attacked them and took thousands as prisoners. Tipu got Runmust Khan, the Nawab of Kurnool, to launch a surprise attack upon the Kodava Hindus who were besieged by the invading Muslim army. 500 were killed and over 40,000 Kodavas fled to the woods and concealed themselves in the mountains. Thousands of Kodavas were seized along with the Raja and held captive at Seringapatam. Aguably, they were thought to be subjected to forcible conversions to Islam, death, and torture.

 

In Seringapatam, the young men were all forcibly circumcised and incorporated into the Ahmedy Corps, and were formed into eight Risalas or regiments. The actual number of Kodavas that were captured in the operation is unclear. The British administrator Mark Wilks gives it as 70,000, Historian Lewis Rice arrives at the figure of 85,000, while Mir Kirmani's score for the Coorg campaign is 80,000 men, women and child prisoners.

 

Mohibbul Hasan, Prof. Sheikh Ali, and other historians cast great doubt on the scale of the deportations and forced conversions in Coorg in particular. Hassan says that it is difficult to estimate the real number of Coorgs captured by Tipu.

 

MALABAR

NORTH MALABAR

In 1788, Tipu entered into Malabar to quell a rebellion. Nairs were surrounded with offers of death or circumcision. Chirakkal's Nair Raja who was received with distinctions for surrendering voluntarily was later hanged. Tipu then divided Malabar into districts, with three officers in each district given the task of numbering productive trees, collecting revenue and giving religious orders to Nairs.

 

INSCRIPTIONS

On the handle of the sword presented by Tipu to Marquess Wellesley was the following inscription:

 

"My victorious sabre is lightning for the destruction of the unbelievers. Ali, the Emir of the Faithful, is victorious for my advantage, and moreover, he destroyed the wicked race who were unbelievers. Praise be to him (God), who is the Lord of the Worlds! Thou art our Lord, support us against the people who are unbelievers. He to whom the Lord giveth victory prevails over all (mankind). Oh Lord, make him victorious, who promoteth the faith of Muhammad. Confound him, who refuseth the faith of Muhammad; and withhold us from those who are so inclined from the true faith. The Lord is predominant over his own works. Victory and conquest are from the Almighty. Bring happy tidings, Oh Muhammad, to the faithful; for God is the kind protector and is the most merciful of the merciful. If God assists thee, thou will prosper. May the Lord God assist thee, Oh Muhammad, with a mighty great victory."

 

During a search of his palace in 1795, some gold medals were found in the palace, on which the following was inscribed on one side in Persian: "Of God the bestower of blessings", and the other: "victory and conquest are from the Almighty". These were carved in commemoration of a victory after the war of 1780. The following is a translation of an inscription on the stone found at Seringapatam, which was situated in a conspicuous place in the fort:

 

"Oh Almighty God! dispose the whole body of infidels! Scatter their tribe, cause their feet to stagger! Overthrow their councils, change their state, destroy their very root! Cause death to be near them, cut off from them the means of sustenance! Shorten their days! Be their bodies the constant object of their cares (i.e., infest them with diseases), deprive their eyes of sight, make black their faces (i.e., bring shame)."

 

TEMPLES AND OFFICERS IN MYSORE

Tipu Sultan's treasurer was Krishna Rao, Shamaiya Iyengar was his Minister of Post and Police, his brother Ranga Iyengar was also an officer, and Purnaiya held the very important post of "Mir Asaf". Moolchand and Sujan Rai were his chief agents at the Mughal court, and his chief "Peshkar", Suba Rao, was also a Hindu. Editor of Mysore Gazettes Srikantaiah has listed 156 temples to which Tipu regularly paid annual grants. There is such evidence as grant deeds, and correspondence between his court and temples, and his having donated jewellery and deeded land grants to several temples, which some claim he was compelled to do to make alliances with Hindu rulers. Between 1782 and 1799 Tipu Sultan issued 34 "Sanads" (deeds) of endowment to temples in his domain, while also presenting many of them with gifts of silver and gold plate. The Srikanteswara Temple in Nanjangud still possesses a jewelled cup presented by the Sultan. He also gave a greenish linga; to Ranganatha temple at Srirangapatna he donated seven silver cups and a silver camphor burner. This temple was hardly a stone's throw from his palace from where he would listen with equal respect to the ringing of temple bells and the muezzin's call from the mosque; to the Lakshmikanta Temple at Kalale he gifted four cups, a plate and Spitoon in silver.

 

SRINGERI INCIDENT

In 1791, Maratha army raided the temple and matha of Sringeri Shankaracharya, killing and wounding many, and plundering the monastery of all its valuable possessions. The incumbent Shankaracharya petitioned Tipu Sultan for help. A bunch of about 30 letters written in Kannada, which were exchanged between Tipu Sultan's court and the Sringeri Shankaracharya were discovered in 1916 by the Director of Archaeology in Mysore. Tipu Sultan expressed his indignation and grief at the news of the raid:

 

"People who have sinned against such a holy place are sure to suffer the consequences of their misdeeds at no distant date in this Kali age in accordance with the verse: "Hasadbhih kriyate karma rudadbhir-anubhuyate" (People do [evil] deeds smilingly but suffer the consequences crying)."

 

He immediately ordered the Asaf of Bednur to supply the Swami with 200 rahatis (fanams) in cash and other gifts and articles. Tipu Sultan's interest in the Sringeri temple continued for many years, and he was still writing to the Swami in the 1790s CE.

 

CONTROVERSIAL FIGURE

In light of this and other events, B.A. Saletare has described Tipu Sultan as a defender of the Hindu dharma, who also patronised other temples including one at Melkote, for which he issued a Kannada decree that the Shrivaishnava invocatory verses there should be recited in the traditional form. The temple at Melkote still has gold and silver vessels with inscriptions indicating that they were presented by the Sultan. Tipu Sultan also presented four silver cups to the Lakshmikanta Temple at Kalale. Tipu Sultan does seem to have repossessed unauthorised grants of land made to Brahmins and temples, but those which had proper sanads were not. It was a normal practice for any ruler, Muslim or Hindu, on his accession or on the conquest of new territory. The portrayal of Tipu Sultan as a secular leader is disputed, and some sources, largely left-leaning scholars from the 20th century, suggest that he in fact often embraced religious pluralism.

 

Historian C. Hayavadana Rao wrote about Tipu in his encyclopaedic court history of Mysore. He asserted that Tipu's "religious fanaticism and the excesses committed in the name of religion, both in Mysore and in the provinces, stand condemned for all time. His bigotry, indeed, was so great that it precluded all ideas of toleration". He further asserts that the acts of Tipu that were constructive towards Hindus were largely political and ostentatious rather than an indication of genuine tolerance.

 

ATTITUDE TOWARDS CHRISTIANS

Tipu is regarded to be anti-Christian by some historians. The captivity of Mangalorean Catholics at Seringapatam, which began on 24 February 1784 and ended on 4 May 1799, remains the most disconsolate memory in their history.

 

The Barcoor Manuscript reports him as having said: "All Musalmans should unite together, and considering the annihilation of infidels as a sacred duty, labour to the utmost of their power, to accomplish that subject." Soon after the Treaty of Mangalore in 1784, Tipu gained control of Canara. He issued orders to seize the Christians in Canara, confiscate their estates, and deport them to Seringapatam, the capital of his empire, through the Jamalabad fort route. However, there were no priests among the captives. Together with Fr. Miranda, all the 21 arrested priests were issued orders of expulsion to Goa, fined Rupees 200,000, and threatened death by hanging if they ever returned.

 

Tipu ordered the destruction of 27 Catholic churches, all beautifully carved with statues depicting various saints. Among them included the Church of Nossa Senhora de Rosario Milagres at Mangalore, Fr Miranda's Seminary at Monte Mariano, Church of Jesu Marie Jose at Omzoor, Chapel at Bolar, Church of Merces at Ullal, Imaculata Conceicão at Mulki, San Jose at Perar, Nossa Senhora dos Remedios at Kirem, Sao Lawrence at Karkal, Rosario at Barkur, Immaculata Conceição at Baidnur. All were razed to the ground, with the exception of The Church of Holy Cross at Hospet, owing to the friendly offices of the Chauta Raja of Moodbidri.

 

According to Thomas Munro, a Scottish soldier and the first collector of Canara, around 60,000 people, nearly 92 percent of the entire Mangalorean Catholic community, were captured; only 7,000 escaped. Francis Buchanan gives the numbers as 70,000 captured, from a population of 80,000, with 10,000 escaping. They were forced to climb nearly 1,200 m through the jungles of the Western Ghat mountain ranges. It was 340 km from Mangalore to Seringapatam, and the journey took six weeks. According to British Government records, 20,000 of them died on the march to Seringapatam. According to James Scurry, a British officer, who was held captive along with Mangalorean Catholics, 30,000 of them were forcibly converted to Islam. The young women and girls were forcibly made wives of the Muslims living there. The young men who offered resistance were disfigured by cutting their noses, upper lips, and ears. According to Mr. Silva of Gangolim, a survivor of the captivity, if a person who had escaped from Seringapatam was found, the punishment under the orders of Tipu was the cutting off of the ears, nose, the feet and one hand. Gazetteer of South India describes Tipu Sultan forcibly circumcising 30,000 West Coast Christians and deporting them to Mysore

 

Tipu's persecution of Christians even extended to captured British soldiers. For instance, there were a significant number of forced conversions of British captives between 1780 and 1784. Following their disastrous defeat at the 1780 Battle of Pollilur, 7,000 British men along with an unknown number of women were held captive by Tipu in the fortress of Seringapatnam. Of these, over 300 were circumcised and given Muslim names and clothes and several British regimental drummer boys were made to wear ghagra cholis and entertain the court as nautch girls or dancing girls. After the 10-year-long captivity ended, James Scurry, one of those prisoners, recounted that he had forgotten how to sit in a chair and use a knife and fork. His English was broken and stilted, having lost all his vernacular idiom. His skin had darkened to the swarthy complexion of negroes, and moreover, he had developed an aversion to wearing European clothes.

 

During the surrender of the Mangalore fort which was delivered in an armistice by the British and their subsequent withdrawal, all the Mestizos and remaining non-British foreigners were killed, together with 5,600 Mangalorean Catholics. Those condemned by Tipu Sultan for treachery were hanged instantly, the gibbets being weighed down by the number of bodies they carried. The Netravati River was so putrid with the stench of dying bodies, that the local residents were forced to leave their riverside homes.

 

The Archbishop of Goa wrote in 1800, "It is notoriously known in all Asia and all other parts of the globe of the oppression and sufferings experienced by the Christians in the Dominion of the King of Kanara, during the usurpation of that country by Tipu Sultan from an implacable hatred he had against them who professed Christianity."

 

Tipu Sultan's invasion of the Malabar had an adverse impact on the Syrian Malabar Nasrani community of the Malabar coast. Many churches in the Malabar and Cochin were damaged. The old Syrian Nasrani seminary at Angamaly which had been the center of Catholic religious education for several centuries was razed to the ground by Tipu's soldiers. A lot of centuries old religious manuscripts were lost forever. The church was later relocated to Kottayam where it still exists to this date. The Mor Sabor church at Akaparambu and the Martha Mariam Church attached to the seminary were destroyed as well. Tipu's army set fire to the church at Palayoor and attacked the Ollur Church in 1790. Furthernmore, the Arthat church and the Ambazhakkad seminary was also destroyed. Over the course of this invasion, many Syrian Malabar Nasrani were killed or forcibly converted to Islam. Most of the coconut, arecanut, pepper and cashew plantations held by the Syrian Malabar farmers were also indiscriminately destroyed by the invading army. As a result, when Tipu's army invaded Guruvayur and adjacent areas, the Syrian Christian community fled Calicut and small towns like Arthat to new centres like Kunnamkulam, Chalakudi, Ennakadu, Cheppadu, Kannankode, Mavelikkara, etc. where there were already Christians. They were given refuge by Sakthan Tamburan, the ruler of Cochin and Karthika Thirunal, the ruler of Travancore, who gave them lands, plantations and encouraged their businesses. Colonel Macqulay, the British resident of Travancore also helped them.

 

TREATMENT OF PRISONERS

According to historian Professor Sheikh Ali, Tipu "took his stand on the bedrock of humanity, regarding all his subjects as equal citizen to live in peace, harmony and concord." However, during the storming of Srirangapatna by the British in 1799, thirteen murdered British prisoners were discovered, killed by either having their necks broken or nails driven into their skulls.

 

Tipu's palace in Seringapatam had a strictly guarded Zenana quarters for women. Many of the women in his Hareem were daughters of native princes and Brahmins, who had been abducted in infancy and brought up Muslim. In the same palace, the legitimate Wadiyar king Chamaraja Wodeyar IX was held captive. The prince having no children had adopted his relative, who was also imprisoned by the Sultan. The palaces and temples raised by the earlier Wadiyar kings were also pulled down by Tipu, on the pretext of strengthening the fortress.

 

LEGACY

Tipu Sultan was one of the first Indian kings to be martyred on the battlefield while defending his Kingdom against the Colonial British. In India, While many historians generally take a favourable view of his reign, others portray him as a Muslim fanatic. Tipu has been officially recognized by the Government of India as a freedom fighter. The 1990 Television Series The Sword of Tipu Sultan directed by Sanjay Khan was based on the Life and events of Tipu Sultan.

 

Tipu Sultan is held in high esteem in Pakistan which considers Tipu Sultan as a hero of the Indian independence movement. The country has honoured him by naming Pakistan Navy ship PNS Tippu Sultan after Tipu Sultan. Pakistan television aired a drama on Tipu Sultan directed by Qasim Jalali.

 

Tipu had several wives. Tipu Sultan's family was sent to Calcutta by the British. A descendent of one of Tipu Sultan's uncles Noor Inayat Khan was a British Special Operations Executive agent during the Second World War, murdered in the German Dachau concentration camp in 1944.

 

SWORD AND TIGER

Tipu Sultan had lost his sword in a war with the Nairs of Travancore during the Battle of the Nedumkotta (1789), in which he was forced to withdraw due to the severe joint attack from Travancore army and British army. The Nair army under the leadership of Raja Kesavadas again defeated the Mysore army near Aluva. The Maharaja, Dharma Raja, gave the famous sword to the Nawab of Arcot, from where the sword went to London. The sword was on display at the Wallace Collection, No. 1 Manchester Square, London.

 

Tipu was commonly known as the Tiger of Mysore and adopted this animal as the symbol (bubri/ babri) of his rule. It is said that Tipu Sultan was hunting in the forest with a French friend. He came face to face with a tiger. His gun did not work, and his dagger fell on the ground as the tiger jumped on him. He reached for the dagger, picked it up, and killed the tiger with it. That earned him the name "the Tiger of Mysore". He even had French engineers build a mechanical tiger for his palace. The device, known as Tipu's Tiger, is on display in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London. Not only did Tipu place relics of tigers around his palace and domain, but also had the emblem of a tiger on his banners and some arms and weapons. Sometimes this tiger was very ornate and had inscriptions within the drawing, alluding to Tipu's faith. Historian Alexander Beatson reported that "in his palace was found a great variety of curious swords, daggers, fusils, pistols, and blunderbusses; some were of exquisite workmanship, mounted with gold, or silver, and beautifully inlaid and ornamented with tigers' heads and stripes, or with Persian and Arabic verses".

 

The last sword used by Tipu in his last battle, at Sri Rangapatnam, and the ring worn by him were taken by the British forces as war trophies. Till April 2004, they were kept on display at the British Museum London as gifts to the museum from Maj-Gen Augustus W.H. Meyrick and Nancy Dowager.

 

At an auction in London in April 2004, Vijay Mallya purchased the sword of Tipu Sultan and some other historical artefacts, and brought them back to India.

 

In October 2013, another sword owned by Tipu Sultan and decorated with his babri (tiger stripe motif) surfaced and was auctioned by Sotheby's. It was purchased for 98,500 £ by a bidder on the phone.

 

WIKIPEDIA

Visit this location at Humiliation Island in Second Life

Visit this location at Humiliation Island in Second Life

resting my feet on edge of prisoners bench to keep them off the floor...people stare at me nearly naked except for filthy old burlap cloth barely covering my private area and butt sitting in shackles and manacles...publicly humiliating to be seen shackled and without clothes...and this is before going to remand prison after court...where conditions are filthy

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year (in advance) from Bob, Lynda, Cody, and Bell.

For Sharon

Well they kept filling my mug!

Not art, but I love the story this pic tells! Sadie is removed from her beloved beach for naughty behaviour, and is she ever humiliated!

Here's an outtake from Finn's 52 week project. You can see the sheer humiliation of having to wear a Santa hat. Too cute!

I did a vintage effect on this one;)

Endlessly humiliating

 

The back of the photo reads:

December 1988

Daniel (7 1/2), David (9 1/2)

Sarah (1 1/2), Eliza (4 1/2)

 

Russel & Rhonda Coulter [not pictured but technically, it was their house]

Coulterville, Illinois

A restored example of village stocks this is on a small area of grass in the village of Sandon, Staffordshire, England. They are leg stocks which were used in the middle ages as a punishment for villagers who had committed minor misdemeanours such as indebtedness, petty pilfering, gossiping, etc. As well as exposing a miscreant to the humiliation of being publicly identified, it also provided the opportunity for other villagers to pelt the poor unfortunate with rotten fruit and veg. This version will uncomfortably seat two people.

Visit this location at Humiliation Island in Second Life

At the Arlington County Dog Park, Four Mile Run, Shirlington.

 

2012_10140033

in a last ditch effort to save humanity, rebellion forces launch a wave of combot marauders, storming the galactic coast in a brilliant tactical diversion that secures the conquest of the homeworld. humiliated and humbled by defeat, the alien forces return to their base in west texas.

I can't believe I had to wear a bib.

Taken while visiting Williamsburg, Virginia.

 

TAN traveler since 2004.

 

This is a submission the 2009 Travel Advantage Network Photo Contest. To learn more about the Travel Advantage Network, please visit www.PlanWithTan.com.

This is ascene from the highly priased Internationalist Theatre production of Strindberg`s `Miss Julie`

2016/03/05(sat)

MALAYSIAS MILITARY DEATH METAL

HUMILIATION JAPAN INVASION 2016 OSAKA

at SOCORE FACTORY

 

HUMILIATION

DISTURD

SEX MESSIAH

SECOND TO NONE

KK and his cutoffs :P

The humiliation games part 2: messy blindfolded feeding time. After this was musical chairs. Should have combined the two activities...

Went over to the Photo Plus Expo at the Javits Center today. Good fun.

 

Apparently someone at SanDisk thinks having these sexless, featureless things writhe around the exhibition floor will help them sell compact flash cards. Or maybe they just enjoy humiliating out of work actors. I would love to have been in the marketing meeting when they came up with this idea.

 

All the usual characters were exhibiting: Nikon, Canon, Pentax, Adobe, Epson, Kodak, HP, Konica Minolta. The Nikon booth was crowded, but the Canon area was positively packed; people seem rather excited about the 5D and the new 24-105 IS L. There were a few interesting things at the show:

 

- With very little arm-twisting, A Leica rep committed to a September 2006 delivery date for a digital M Series body, at which point I became visibly excited and had to cover my nether region with my 24-70mm zoom, for modesty's sake. This is the first time I have heard anyone official commit to a date for a digital M; I'm really quite excited.

 

- Leica's new D-LUX 2 is actually quite a nice little camera. Smaller than I thought it was.

 

- The editor of View Camera was there. It was nice to say hello and tell him how much I like his magazine.

 

- Lensbabies had a relatively large booth. I was surprised to see them there in force. They must be selling a lot of those things.

 

- Apple's Aperture looks pretty cool, particularly on dual 30-inch displays. Apple also had a surprisingly huge booth with a nice 50-workstation tutorial area. The seats were filled and the tutorials were all booked; it looks like people are interested in Aperture.

 

- Lots of paper vendors were there. People must be making quite a few ink jet prints.

 

- The Stock Artists Allicance was there. Interesting organization. One of the reasons I got the 5D was so I could get serious about shooting some stock photos. I'll certainly give the SAA a closer look.

 

- White House Custom Color was there, but I missed their booth. I'm sorry I didn't see them; I'd like to see some good samples of their printing.

 

- Hasselblad's H2 is a nice piece of equipment. And those lenses are no joke. Arca-Swiss cameras are also quite nice.

 

Lots of good stuff.

"Quem a si mesmo se exaltar será humilhado, e quem a si mesmo se humilhar será exaltado." Mt 23:12.

Do ensaio "Evangélicos".

"Whosoever shall exalt himself shall be abased; and he that shall humble himself shall be exalted." Mt 23:12.

From "Evangelic" essay.

Dory sporting her Charlie Brown shirt care of Kranki

Alright, I just remembered the most humiliating moment of my life. Until now, I was strictly "banned" from telling this story by my now ex-wife because she said that it suggested that we might have had premarital sex and that I'm not at all funny. But since the divorce, I can now, finally after a number of years confess that, on my marriage day, I was a fallen man.

 

Stop....breath....calm place.... I guess I should apologize if I have been "living the lie" to any of you until now.

 

Ok, back to what's important. At the time, my extras casting company was running seven days a week from around 6am to midnight. As would happen, I'd drive from the SFV to Aliso Viejo to see my girlfriend/soon wife sometimes during the in-between times.

 

So one night on the way after midnight, I stopped at the Sav-on at Hollywood Way and Magnolia in Burbank before getting on the freeway. But as I entered, I froze. I realized something was definitely wrong. At first, I thought it must be a robbery. Then, however, I realized that everyone was just looking at someone else, Bob Hope--who was there with that one who wasn't his wife, and they were muddling around in the pharmacy section.

 

As I realized I wouldn't be eating lead soon, I quickly got what I needed and got into the checkout line that now was rather long since everyone had stopped to gaze upon Hope. A nasty look from me, though, got it moving again.

 

As I impatiently waited in line, that bastard got in line right behind me. As I telepathically willed the cashier to please hurry, Hope took a look into my basket and saw that I had used a diet Pepsi to lamely try to hide the condoms and lube--WHICH WERE NOT EVENTUALLY USED FOR PREMARITAL SEX, OK!

 

This sent him into a comic routine for the small crowd gathered based upon the differences between the contents of our baskets and ages. Sorry that I can't remember the specific jokes, but I was trying hard to ignore them and starting to perspire from embarrassment until I finally got to the cashier.

 

Now, I still don't know how, but I'm positive that this really tiny, graveyard shift, female cashier was in on it in a bad way with Hope, because her broken-English request over the PA System for a "price check on the lube" just sent Hope into complete comic overdrive at my expense. I tried to be patient and just wait, but I got extreme tunnel vision, my perspiration turned to a pouring sweat, and the pounding embarrassment in my head was so loud that I couldn't hear anything. The only sense I had some of was sight, and everyone I could see was laughing.

 

I don't know what happened, how I paid, or anything after that. All I could think about is that arguably one of the most successful comedians in the western world just unleashed an uncensored, un-pc routine on my sorry butt. When I finally came to, I was in my own place and quietly pulling the bed covers over my head.

The drawing is mounted in Volume II-TER of the John Ryland's copy of "La Sainte Bible : Ancien Testament . . . / Compositions par J.-James Tissot"; with preface by A. D. Sertillanges, introduction by M. de Brunoff and the French version of L. J. Lemaistre de Saci. (Sertillanges, Antonin Gilbert 1863-1948; Le Maistre de Sacy, Isaac-Louis, 1613-1684) 2 vols. : illus., plates : 4to. 40 plates, 360 illustrations to text, by James Tissot. Paris: M. de Brunoff & Cie, 1904.

 

The edition contains 360 mounted colour, b/w, and duo-tone illustrations in the text and 40 plates in three states, sepia-tone, partly hand-coloured, and finished coloured state. The plates are protected with captioned tissue-guards. The paper size is 15 3/4 x 13 ins; image size varies (c 8 1/2 x 5 1/2 ins).

 

Of the 561 copies printed, the John Rylands Library (Manchester) copy is an "exemplaire unique". As well as the triple set of the large plates in various states, and a series of proofs before letters of the illustrations appearing in the text, it contains a water colour drawing by Tissot ("Joseph presents his father Jacob to Pharaoh"), these original pen and ink sketches for this work, and an autograph letter by him. (John Rylands Library Special Collections R16279)

 

The paintings for the Illustrations were based on the sketches and completed after Tissot's death in 1902 by Henri Bellery-Desfontaines, Auguste François Gorguet, Charles Hoffbauer, Louis van Parys, Michel Simonidy and Georges Bertin Scott.

 

Files created by Phillip Medhurst: Tissot in Brunoff at the John Rylands www.amazon.co.uk/clouddrive/share/kq7jBR4DkA1VIbQ5isRelyH...

Two very sorry soaped up rats.

Matt humiliating himself at the Giggling Marlin. (There was a lot of tequila involved that night!)

I'm humiliated enough as it is!!

 

My Dad's Cairn Terrier, Memsie. She got into a fight with my dog so my Dad put a muzzle on her. She looked so funny!! Yet so sad too! I said I felt bad that she had the muzzle on but I was still going to take pictures because she was so funny looking! As soon as I said that, she walked away (right after I took this photo!) She's got lots of attitude!! =)

Weather delays meant we were 5 hours late getting in to JFK to connect to a Delta international flight. Our Delta international flight was delayed getting out of JFK and we could have made it to the plane (they later told us, as if it was our fault), but Delta's Terminal 3 was jammed with people in an astonishingly huge line, no Delta representative would speak with us about our soon-to-be-missed international connection, and when we tried to approach them about it Delta employees insisted we get in that one huge long line. So we did. We waited in line at Delta's Terminal 3, barely moving, for 4 and a half hours. Then just as we got to the ticketing desk, Delta closed that terminal and told us to walk to an adjacent terminal. When we got there, we were told to go to the back of another even longer line. Again, Delta employees on the scene refused to help us and insisted we join the huge line. Some of the people in that line had already been there as long as we had been at the other terminal.

 

There were no managers we could find. Delta did not call in extra staff to help us, instead they just parked us what amounted to one holding area after another. No one seemed to care about these waits of 7+ hours in multiple lines. Delta seemed to think this was just business as usual. When one man complained loudly enough for the rest of us to hear, Delta staff called the police (who arrived promptly - best service of the day). I have never felt so disrespected. The Delta organization treated us all like dirt and clearly did not care what happened to us. In the end (after 7+ hours in two different lines in two different terminals), we were able to re-book, but Delta would only put us on a flight two days later. Because the origin of our problem was a weather delay, Delta refused to pay to put us in a hotel in NYC while we wait for our Delta international flight, so here we are involuntarily in NYC for two days, paying for an expensive hotel room in New York while the one we reserved for and paid for in Spain sits empty for two days. But the lost time and money isn't the worst part. Delta treated us as if we just didn't matter. I can't find words to say how humiliated and frustrated I felt becuse of the way Delta treated us. To say we were disrespected is to put it mildly. It was more like contempt, and not from individual emloyees (who were clearly overwhelmed and under-resourced) but by the management and the entire Delta organization who think this kind of treatment is just business as usual. I'll never buy another Delta ticket as long as I live.

But I just entered this photo, along with a complete description, in an online travel photo contest sponsored by Delta Airlines. Think I’ll win?

 

Circa 1975, near Lake Tahoe, California.

(28.05.2024)

 

Another walk to clean public toilets.

 

The toilet is dirty inside, there are dried drops on its lid, the floor is covered in drops and stains, the toilet brush is also in poor condition.

There is some work to be done.

A church and monastery were founded here around 1350 by the Umiliati (Humiliated) order and initially dedicated to Saint Christopher, the patron saint of the gondoliers. Tiberio da Parma, the leader of the Order, and said to have been responsible for the original design of the church, is buried here. During the building of this church an unfinished statue of the Madonna, made by Giovanni de Santis (but also said to have fallen from heaven) and kept in an orchard (orto) nearby following its rejection by the Prior of Santa Maria Formosa, for which church it had been carved, started getting a reputation for glowing and working miracles. The church bought the statue, with the intention of thereby increasing offerings towards the cost of the building work, and on 18th June 1377 it was placed on the high altar. Since then the church has been known as Madonna dell'Orto. More at: www.churchesofvenice.co.uk/cannaregio.htm#madellort